Before the US officially got involved in "The Big One,"  several volunteers headed off to France to learn the newly created art of military aviation.  Flyboys follows the adventures of some of them, most notably Blaine Rawlings (James Franco.)

Now, I'd made some comments previously about this film, when all I had to go off of were the previews.  Quite honestly they made this film look just ridiculous.  I'm happy to say that it isn't so, and that I actually, and surprisingly, liked this movie, a lot.

I'd almost say that this film could have been made in the 40's or 50's.  It just has that same, I don't know, quality to it.  There's really no harsh language to speak of, no horribly graphic violence (but just enough to garner it a PG-13), has the obligatory love story side plot which doesn't get in the way of the main story, and provides enough action to really keep you on the edge of your chair!

Yeah, yeah, I know... there was a lot of "artistic license" taken when it comes down to the actual dogfight scenes.  But put in context those outlandish scenes from the trailers really aren't so bad, especially the plane-through-the-exploding-zeppelin bit.  If you look at it from the perspective I'm talking about (your classic "action/adventure" type war movie) I think its perfectly forgivable.

Franco's role as the "hero" was well played, as was Capt. Thenault (Jean Reno) and Lucienne (Jennifer Decker), but the broody veteran Cassidy (Martin Henderson) got a little tiresome.  The rest of the guys were just along for the ride....

But (you knew that was coming) there were a couple of minor issues I had with it, first the absolutely in-your-face racial bit.  Must we turn everything into a statement?  I'll say though that once it was "out of the way" it resolved itself gracefully, and didn't factor into things later on.

The soundtrack was very good, but unfortunately a few bars of the main theme sounded exactly like the main theme from "Saving Private Ryan", which for me at least, was a bit distracting.  YMMV.

Then there's the "Afterwards, so and so did this and that" subtitle ending.  I hate that.  Just let us imagine what happened to these guys.

Flyboys is an action filled movie that pays appropriate tribute to the pioneers of military aviation, and even if it gets a little unrealistic, just sit back and enjoy it. Its a fresh change from the current crop of hardcore, blood and guts, f-this and f-that war movies.

Technorati Tags: war movie reviews, flyboys, 2006, james franco, jean reno, jennifer decker, martin henderson, world war i, military aviation, france